Becky Lynch wins Raw & SmackDown women's titles at WrestleMania
At the first ever WrestleMania headlined by women, Becky Lynch completed her meteoric rise from the midcard to the top of WWE by winning the Raw and SmackDown women’s titles over Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair.
While Charlotte (the SmackDown champion) was on the outside of the ring, Lynch countered Rousey’s Piper Pit into a crucifix for the pin at just under 22 minutes. The finish felt abrupt and the announcers were playing up that Rousey’s shoulder might not have been down which muddied things a bit.
It was the first pinfall loss for Rousey, the Raw women’s champion, since she started with WWE a year ago.
It was a physical match that saw all three women take a good deal of punishment. Flair was bleeding from her elbow and was thrown into a table that barely broke, while Rousey had visible bruising on her left calf and almost fell on the top of her head on a spot to the outside of the ring.
The match kicked off at midnight Eastern and featured a tribute entrance by Flair to her father’s at the Great American Bash in 1986, and Joan Jett playing in Rousey to “Bad Reputation”.
The 32-year-old Lynch has been on fire since last summer, slowly creating a counterauthority personality with the nickname “The Man”. It was enhanced by her removal from a Survivor Series match against Rousey due to a legit concussion suffered at the hands of Nia Jax during an angle. In the months that followed, her star grew bigger and she enhanced it with a social media feud with Rousey and Flair.
Depending on what WWE tries to do creatively, this will be Lynch’s third SmackDown title reign and her first as Raw champion.
In total, eight of 10 championships at WrestleMania changed hands. Only SmackDown tag team champions The Usos and U.S. Champion Samoa Joe retained.